⌈ The following list is the result of reflection on the last twenty years, or rather on the Polish devices we have tested. We present it to you, pointing out not only the companies that have stood the test of time, but simply those whose products were and/or are not only interesting, but even iconic. Welcome to Part 2 of HIGH FIDELITY's summary of twenty years of testing Polish products. ⌋

IN PART 1 of the article that you are now reading we presented ten Polish devices from the first years of our magazine’s existence, as well as awards: the main one, awarded to three companies: J.SIKORA, ANCIENT AUDIO and GIGAWATT, a technology award given to the THUNDER MELODY company, an award for a record label given to Adam Czerwiński’s AC RECORDS, as well as an award for a publishing series, received by POLSKIE NAGRANIA CATALOGUE SELECTIONS, for which the remaster was prepared by Damian Lipiński; more → HERE. We arranged our suggestions for non-Polish devices according to the calendar. This time we decided to use the alphabetical order.

⸜ The most important thing – “High Fidelity” readers (to the right); Audio Video Show 2023

As you can see, the list of “20 on the 20th” awards, in both editions, is divided into two parts. In this edition, the first part, devoted to Polish companies, was published on September 1st and included devices from “A” for “AVATAR AUDIO”, to “L” for LIME EARS. In this part, we continue presenting the products of companies whose name begins with this magnificent letter, starting with LINEAR AUDIO RESEARCH, and closing almost at the end of the alphabet, with a letter that does not appear in the Polish language, but is present thanks to borrowings from the English language, namely “X”, under which the company XACT is hidden.

We invite you to the second part of our journey together through the twenty years of our magazine history!

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˻ 20 FOR THE 20th ˼
» Part 2 «

LINEAR AUDIO RESEARCH
AI-45 Mk II
integrated amplifier
» 2005 «

I MADE MY FIRST CONTACT WITH Mr. EUGENIUSZ CZYŻEWSKI, the founder, head, and designer of the LAR company, much over twenty years ago when I was still working at the Chorzow-based print magazine "Sound and Vision". Only that his company was then called Argos. Due to the presence of that name in the commercial space, it had to be changed. With good results, if I may add. That first product was an MM phono preamplifier, which I still have tucked away as a keepsake.

Mr. Czyżewski's company is known today for its hybrid amplifiers, with a solid-state input and a tube output. And although almost underground, it does exist, and it is doing quite well. It will soon present new products, which we will probably test. After all, we are talking about a company with more than twenty years of experience. We tested the awarded amplifier in the eighteenth (!) HF issue of October 2005. It was the first “complete” refined product of its kind that opened the hearts of music lovers for the company. And although subsequent devices got better and better, it was this model that gave the firm a “kick”.

» Publication: № 18 • OCTOBER 2005 ⸜ test → HERE ˻PL˺

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MARTON
OPUSCULUM 0.1.1
integrated amplifier
» 2006 «

AS I WROTE IN THIS AMPLIFIER’S TEST from January 2006, I had been dreaming of listening to it for a long time. Designed by Mr. MAREK KNAGA, it won my admiration when I was still working as an acoustician-sound engineer, but I was already reading “Audio”, the magazine in which I would later work for the next decade. As I wrote in the test of this device, Mr. Knaga designed and made an amplifier that could stand on a par with Western devices, both in terms of design (including the artwork), workmanship and sound.

I first saw the device at the Audio Show in 2004, where it was paired with Sound&Line speakers, which I wrote about in the introduction to this issue of High Fidelity, and Power Audio Labs power-voltage conditioners. Who could have guessed then that PAL's heir, Gigawatt, fourteen years later, in 2018, would buy Mr. Knaga's brand and present magnificently crafted, absolutely high-end amplifiers created by this designer. For me, however, it was that first contact with a Marton amplifier that I have cherished in my memory as something special, while it’s been over twenty years since that Audio Show and eighteen since the test.

» Publication: № 21 • JANUARY 2006 ⸜ test → HERE ˻PL˺

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MUARAH
MT-3 & MY-1/9
turntable & turntable arm
» 2024 «

MUARAH AUDIO debuted at the Audio Video Show 2015 with a complete system for playing music from vinyl records. Its founders are Mr. JACEK SIWIŃSKI and Mr. WIESŁAW ZAWADA. It has quite expensive turntables in its offer, but also the one I wanted to draw your attention to: the MT-3 model. A proprietary MY-1/9 tonearm was developed especially for it, thanks to which an excellent system was created, which looks good, is easy to set up and, on top of that, sounds superb!

While awarding the RED Fingerprint to this set, I wrote that its sound is neither tiring, nor puts you to sleep, as well as that what we get is “cool” and “attractive”. On the one hand, it is a device that is very neutral in what it does and solid in the presentation of music. On the other hand, it's a machine that brings out emotions from recordings, letting you experience their feeling. After all, it is precisely what we want.

» Publication: № 239 • MARCH 2024 ⸜ test → HERE

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PRO AUDIO BONO
PEEK 7060 SN
anti-vibration feet
» 2024 «

PRO AUDIO BONO is one of those Polish brands whose birth, growth and subsequent products I followed firsthand. I was the first to test and for a long time used its anti-vibration shelves, which the company started with, and later the feet, which today are its basic and constantly perfected product. The → PAB CERAMIC 70 UNI-FOOT feet are placed under the speaker stands with the Harbeths M40.1 in the “High Fidelity” reference system. The important thing for me was that this is a manufacturer that has developed its own technology based on rolling bearings.

As for the reward, however, I choose the latest company product, the PEEK 7060 SN feet, since they are a “new opening” for the manufacturer. Over the years, the company experimented with various materials, eventually opting for steel. And while products of this type remain in PAB's product line, reaching for PEEK, a plastic that goes by the full name of polyetheretherketone, indicates a different path that Mr. WŁADYSŁAW SKRZYPCZAK, the company's founder and designer, is taking. Therefore, next month we’re running a test of the Full PEEK feet.

» Publication: № 243 • JULY 2024 ⸜ test → HERE ˻PL˺

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PYLON AUDIO
PEARL 25
loudspeakers ⸜ floorstanders
» 2014 «

AGAIN, THIS IS A COMPANY that grew with „High Fidelity”. Pylon Audio, managed by MATEUSZ JUJKA, is one of the most important Polish audio companies today – perhaps even the biggest one – with its own production halls, anechoic chamber and a separate R&D department. It is from its warehouses that enclosures and complete OEM-made loudspeakers are shipped all over Europe, from inexpensive models to absolutely high-end loudspeakers.

But the most important thing is happening in designs with the Pylon Audio logo. At the Munich exhibition this year, a flagship model with a composite enclosure was presented, marking the direction of the company's quest into the stratosphere, while the Zirkon series uses only in-house-made drivers. Let me remind you that together with Pylon we prepared two “anniversary” speaker models, the Emerald Touched by High Fidelity and Jade 20 High Fidelity Edition. And yet, it was the first speakers from this company that I listened to, the inconspicuous inexpensive Pearl 25, premiere-tested by me in 2014, that showed me it is a manufacturer to watch closely. And it was them, the modest “floorstanders” that became the company’s cornerstone.

» Publication: № 124 • JULY 2014 ⸜ test → HERE

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RCM AUDIO
SENSOR PRELUDE IC
MM/MC turntable preamplifier
» 2007 «

WITH THIS INCREDIBLE phono preamplifier, we once again go back to the prehistory of “High Fidelity,” as far back as the 43rd issue and November 2007. The unit was designed by ROBERT ROLOF for RCM Audio, which is the production arm of RCM Atelier run by ROGER ADAMEK, one of the most famous Polish admirers of the analog. The device was small and inexpensive, but played music like ten times more expensive (or even more pricy) devices of the competition. Importantly, nothing has changed to this day.

I have been using this preamplifier to this day, for all these years, also with top-of-the-line products like the TechDAS Air Force One, the J.Sikora Reference, or the SME 20. My friend Dirk Sommer always asks me with concern in his eyes if I'm sure I know what I'm doing, and I can look deeply into them each time and confirm. There are, of course, better devices on the market, and RCM Audio itself offers a breakaway product, the → THE BIG PHONO model, something you dream about. However, it was the silver little thing from the year 2007 that stole my heart.

» Publication: № 43 • NOVEMBER 2007 ⸜ test → HERE

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ROGOZ AUDIO
3SG40
anti-vibration platform
» 2011 «

HERE WE ARE RECALLING ANOTHER PRODUCT created years ago, again not because nothing interesting has happened in the company ever since, but because the platform set the direction which the company is moving, polishing and perfecting solutions that it had already developed or only intuited at the time. It was there that ideas germinated, the development of which we see in such successful products as the → VOLTA/BBS platform.

My first contact with this Katowice-based company took place on the occasion of testing the CPPB16 platform, which I listened to as part of a larger comparative test in “Audio” (Wszystko mi drży (Eng. I all shiver), No. 7-8, 2010). Its CEO and constructor, Mr. JANUSZ ROGOŻ, has developed many excellent products since then, keeping their prices “decent” at the same time. But already the first one, from 2011, showed us what can be done with imagination, goodwill and, of course, musical sensitivity.

» Publication: № 89 • SEPTEMBER 2011 ⸜ test → HERE ˻PL˺

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STRUSS
CHOPIN MkIV
integrated amplifier
» 2009 «

MR. ZDZISŁAW HRYNKIEWICZ-STRUSS was one of the most important representatives of Polish engineering involved in building audio products. When he presented his first amplifier, the Struss 01-2, in 1995, he in a way “developed” the domestic market for himself. It was with great excitement that I read his test in “Magazyn Hi-Fi”, the first specialized audio magazine in Poland, and then tests of his subsequent amplifiers, models 140 and 140L, in “Hi-Fi i Muzyka” and “Audio”. I did not know then that I would meet both the designer, who would visit me in Krakow, and his son, Mr. Jacek, who continues the history of the company's amplifiers, adding his own contribution to it in the form of loudspeakers.

I have chosen the Chopin IV model, which we tested in 2009, since it was, in my opinion, a breakthrough for the company. As I wrote at the time, the Chopin showed me that it was only a fitting preview of what could be offered at the time. It was not a universal amplifier, nor was it “equal” in the sense that it did not at all try to do “good” to everyone. But it was instead “infernally smooth, angelically mellow” and “wonderfully saturated.” And, by the way, I raise a toast to Mr. Zdzisław, who is no longer here with us – may only the best music accompany you on your journey!

» Publication: № 65 • SEPTEMBER 2009 ⸜ test → HERE

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WK AUDIO
PURE PIANO BLACK
anti-vibration platform
» 2018 «

THE WK AUDIO COMPANY was founded by WITOLD KAMIÑSKI in 2017 in Plichtów, near Lodz, Poland. Witek is an architect by profession, but he is also passionate about music, as well as an author of columns in “High Fidelity”, on culture in the broadest sense. In this passion of his, he was proactive, that is, while wanting to improve something in his system, he designed an anti-vibration platform for the turntable, called the Pure Piano Black after the company was set up. And although today the bulk of its offerings are interconnect cables, the compay still sells the aforementioned platforms, mainly to Asia.

It is really nice, well-made and works well in any audio system. As I wrote in its test, it “changes the sound in the right direction.” It gives better differentiation, brilliantly improves the depth and plasticity of the soundstage, as well as cleans the low midrange of tinctures. As a result, the sound of a system, even a very expensive one, is better with it, more natural than without it. As I say, Witek devotes most of his time today to cables, and they repay him beautifully, playing really professionally. And yet it is this first product of WK Audio that seems to me to be the most important for it, one could even say – the base one.

» Publication: № 170 • JUNE 2018 ⸜ test → HERE

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XACT
S1
audio file transport
» 2022 «

THE XACT COMPANY may seem unfamiliar. However, its head, MARCIN OSTAPOWICZ, is a person who has been active in audio for many, many years, first proposing the JPLAY program that plays files, and then components for playing them, such as sound cards, power supplies for them and cabling. The brands are mainly known overseas, mainly in the US, Japan, China and Korea. XACT is its youngest brand, as it was established in October 2022. It was in “High Fidelity” that its first product, the audio file transport S1 had its world premiere.

It features everything Marcin and his business partner have learned so far. At the heart of the product is the ZENA (ZERO-Noise-Architecture) platform, the world's first motherboard solely based on linear voltage regulators. It houses a 1.6 GHz Quad-Core processor, which, according to the manufacturer, was selected because of its high performance in network applications and relatively low power consumption. The OCXO Stratum 3E clock, previously proven in JCAT's flagship USB and NET cards, is used for clocking. This is one of the most interesting file transports on the market. And, on top of that, it looks great :)

» Publication: № 223 • NOVEMBER 2022 ⸜ test → HERE

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IN THIS WAY WE CLOSE THE SECOND and last part of our selection of the most memorable twenty Polish products from twenty years of “High Fidelity” history. We hope you had a good time revisiting these, often distant, events and products. They are all part of our history. We thank everyone who has brought us joy in these twenty years, and we hope that in some way we, the "High Fidelity" magazine, have also contributed to their success, if only a tiny bit. Good luck!

And for now – LET’S CELEBRATE THE 20th BIRTHDAY OF HIGH FIDELITY! ●